Serie A ready to exploit the hype created by Cristiano Ronaldo

Serie A was missing the global media attention in recent years. Thanks to Juventus’ money and their clear ambition to win UEFA Champions League, Serie A is gifted the current FIFA Best Men’s Player and five time Ballon d’Or winner – Cristiano Ronaldo. Now with a man of global appeal in their bags, Serie A is ready to exploit the hype created by Cristiano Ronaldo.

There was never a doubt about the Italian style of football. They are better organized and defensively solid, but due to lack of money they were not competing in the Europe with the same strength they used to compete a decade ago.

Juventus, the 33-time record Serie A winner with seven consecutive titles are their only hope in elite competition like UEFA Champions League. However, AS Roma proved to be curtain-raiser last season reaching semi-final of the competition.

It opened the gate for other to dream big. Napoli, AC Milan, and Inter Milan are trying their best to reach to the top level again, but they were lacking the necessary promotion to take their domestic league on another level.

Serie A needed global appeal and for that they needed a player of Cristiano Ronaldo’s stature. When global media pay attention to you, your competition becomes important to the world, and performances of the teams become appealing itself.

How much Cristiano Ronaldo is going to help Juventus, only time will tell? But, Serie A has definitely benefitted from Portuguese star move to Italy, and they’re ready to make the most of the hype created by him.

We have seen in the transfer window. Serie A is looking appealing to quality players and they’re making a move to Scudetto chasing clubs. AC Milan, Inter Milan, and AS Roma along with Juventus have become the promising prospect for the top players.

Some are arriving with a prospect to play against Ronaldo, then some are arriving with a prospect to play alongside him. With quality players arriving at the top Serie A clubs, competition has become stronger.

Serie A will also benefit from Ronaldo’s hype with their big matches arriving early in the season. It’s only second match day and big clubs are up against each-other. Juventus will face Lazio tomorrow, whereas Napoli will face AC Milan. Inter Milan is also up against Torino and AS Roma is up against Atalanta.

Serie A board knew that they’re going to benefit from Ronaldo’s hype. But, they need to sustain that hype making Serie A more lucrative. They have no choice except to play their big matches early in the season. Once the global media attention arrives, they needed to make sure they don’t lose it.

Italian authorities were unlucky to already agreed on a new domestic television deal for 2018-2021 before Cristiano Ronaldo arrived. Initially a deal worth €1.05bn was struck with Spanish distributor Mediapro, but that agreement was rejected by Italy’s competition authorities.

Eventually a deal was struck between Sky, who will show 70 per cent of Serie A matches, and Perform who will broadcast 114 top flight games and all Serie A games. The total value was €1.4bn, but the domestic television deal sits some way behind the Bundesliga and Ligue 1, and is dwarfed by the Premier League, with its record €5bn TV deal currently being renegotiated for 2019-2022. Fortunately for Italian the football, it may well be that its global appeal is on the up, in a way not seen since the 1990s.

The effect can be seen already, with ESPN striking a deal to broadcast Serie A in the United States. The “multi-year” agreement agrees to see one match per week broadcast on ESPN and ESPN Deportes, with another eight being shown on ESPN+ the newly-launched streaming service. The first live match was Cristiano Ronaldo’s first match as Juventus played against Chievo.

Streaming is also set to be king in the UK, with Eleven Sports snapping up the Serie A rights ahead of BT Sport. Much as Channel 4 did with its revolutionary Football Italia show in the 1990s, the platform hopes to bring a new angle to calcio coverage, as well as revolutionizing the way the Italian top flight is watched.